Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 1301 to 1325 of 2962 results

Matthew 10:1-42

Sermon

King Duncan

... of everything we are and hope to be. And, wonder of wonders, this is the path to true happiness in this world and the world to come. 1. James W. Moore, Seizing the Moments (Nashville: Dimensions for Living, 2001). 2. Dr. Peter Hirsch. Success by Design (Minneapolis, MN: Bethany House, 2002), p. 55. 3. Dr. James E. Rimmer, Brilliant, OH. 4. “Who’s Smiling Now?” by Jane Meredith Adams in O, The Oprah Magazine, March 2004, p. 242. 5. Secrets of the Mustard Seed: Ten Life -Changing Promises From the ...

1302. First Things First

Philippians 3:12-4:1

Sermon

King Duncan

... , Robert tried to return to his successful business, but his heart wasn’t in it. He kept dreaming of helping other Native American people build their own homes. Finally, Robert Young sold his business and opened the Red Feather Development Group, an organization that designs and builds low-cost housing on Native American reservations.(5) Robert Young did this out of compassion for these desperately poor people, but do you understand that he also did it for himself? He could not go back to the old life of ...

1303. People of Influence

1 Thessalonians 1:1-10

Sermon

King Duncan

... went on. When the contestant was stumped on a question, he could pursue one of three solutions. He could ask that two of his four choices be eliminated, giving him a 50% chance of answering correctly. Or he could call a family member or friend that he had designated before the show as an expert. Or he could ask for the audience’s help, and they would poll the audience. Now, the experts did fairly well. They were right 65% of the time. But here’s what’s surprising. The audience was right 91% of the ...

1304. The Scariest Drug on the Market

1 Timothy 6:3-10

Sermon

Edward Inabinet

... money. "I don''t need it now," she reasoned. "I have the love of God and He will supply all my needs." But Gert Behanna learned a hard lesson that she would long regret. Because she had chosen poverty, she no longer had any money to invest in projects designed to help people in need. Jesus is not asking most of us to give away all that we have. He is saying to us that we must be careful. Money is not only addictive. It is deadening. It deadens our sensitivity to those around us. EVEN MORE DANGEROUSLY, IT ...

1305. Where Meek Souls Will Recieve Him Still

John 3:22-36

Sermon

Darrick Acre

... . Who am I? I am the attendant who prepares the way for the coming together of the bride and groom and rejoices in their union. Only here the bride and groom are not a couple of blushing kids. The bride is the people of God, a common designation in both the Old and New Testaments. The groom is the coming One who ushers in the salvation of the Lord; and their union doesn’t establish a nuclear family, but the household of God. “Everyone is going out to Jesus. Good! That is the fulfillment of everything ...

1306. Hope in the Shadows

Mark 13:1-31

Sermon

Darrick Acre

... our beings with absolute certainty: Jesus has come, is coming, and will come again. Heaven and earth may pass away. This reality will never pass away. Pastor, are you sure you are reading this text correctly? This really seems like a piece of end-time prophecy, designed to give us signs of the time, so we may be prepared for Jesus to come. Are you sure this isn’t timetable material? I am sure it isn’t timetable material, because verse 32 says there isn’t a knowable timetable. “No one knows about ...

1307. Father? Almighty?

John 14:5-14

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... Eddington, in a book titled Science and the Unseen World, written in 1930, said: “In the case of our human friends we take their existence for granted, not caring whether it is proven or not. Our relationship is such that we could read philosophical arguments designed to prove the non-existence of each other, and perhaps even be convinced by them...and then laugh together over so odd a conclusion.” I think that it is something of the same kind of security we should seek in our relationship with God. The ...

1308. Making Sense of the Ascension

Luke 24:50-53

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... the earth must be walking on their heads with their feet in the air! About 75 years later, Galileo sought to validate Copernicus theories through the use of the telescope, but people refused to look into the thing, saying that it was an instrument of the devil, designed only to confuse people. Galileo was called on the carpet by the Pope and ordered to recant his quaint notion that the earth moved around the sun. Not being the stuff of which martyrs are made, he took it all back. But as he was leaving, he ...

1309. To Hell and Back

Luke 15:1-7

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... . Child sacrifices were offered there to the pagan god Moloch, and from ancient times it was considered to be a spooky place. The notion that hell may be the garbage dump of the universe is a provocative one. Hell may be the place which God has designed, out of His infinite love, for those who wish to ignore Him, so that they may keep on ignoring Him for all eternity, if they wish! Leslie Weatherhead, in his book The Christian Agnostic, suggested that there may well be encouragement to be found in the ...

1310. What on Earth Is the Trinity?

John 14:15-31

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... their sacraments. The words are a part of the worship and ritual of every Christian body on earth. Everywhere you go in the world, you will find Christians using the same language about God. Just what do these words mean? Are they merely theological mumbo-jumbo designed to confuse the laity, or do they point to something real and important? In discussing the Apostles’ Creed we have looked at our statement of faith in God, in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord, and, this morning we come to the phrase ...

1311. What’s the Good Word?

John 1:1-18

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... a student of contemporary theology, but here he is telling us what we have done to the term “God.” We have made it into an “ominous, hollow” thing...when the Bible speaks of God in living, verbal images. The famous philosopher, inventor, mathematician, designer and engineer Buckminster Fuller wrote a poem in 1940 titled “No More Secondhand God” in which he said, “God is a verb.” That comes close to the Biblical way of thinking. In Hebrew, then, Dabar means both word and deed. Thus, for the ...

1312. Is Suffering Punishment for Sin?

John 9:1-12

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... you know how it goes: from the reverse side all you can see are the tangled threads, but God see the beautiful pattern He is weaving on the other side. One day, we, too, shall see how even the most terrible things are woven into God’s great design. Now, there is some truth in all of these answers and arguments, but ultimately they do not really satisfy us. Perhaps the reason is that we really do not need an answer or an argument at all, but rather an assurance that behind everything there beats the heart ...

1313. Aren’t All Religions Basically Alike?

John 14:5-14

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... sainted Dr. John Baillie of Edinburgh. Speaking of the words of Jesus: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6) Dr. Baillie said, “God made possible only one door to Himself, and so designed our salvation that none could come to the him without at the same time coming to one another.” In other words, it is God’s will that all of God’s children should come to God together, not separately. God’s will for the world is community, and ...

1314. Does God Give Out Blank Checks?

John 15:1-17

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... of the Master’s mind.” (New York and Nashville: The Abingdon Press, 1965, p. 221) I would suggest that this concept of prayer in Jesus’ name changes our whole concept of what prayer is all about. In the popular mind, prayer is a sort of gimmick designed to get the Almighty over into our “corner,” over to our side, on to our team. It has been thought of as a device for overcoming the indifference and/or reluctance of the Almighty; for getting God to perform special favors for us, even sensational ...

1315. The Jesus Connection

John 15:1-17

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... into progress.” There are all sorts of metaphors in this saying of our Lord, “I am the vine.” Let me conclude with one more. Jesus’ metaphor of the vine and the branches point up a connectedness with Him and with one another. We are simply not designed to “go it alone” in this world. John Wesley was right when he said that the New Testament knows of no such thing as solitary religion. To be a Christian at all is to be connected. To belong to Jesus Christ is automatically to belong to anyone ...

1316. Whatever became of Kingdomtide?

John 16:17-33

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

I wonder whatever became of Kingdomtide. Kingdomtide used to be listed on the liturgical calendar of the old Methodist, and now United Methodist, Church as the period between Pentecost and Advent. It began on the last Sunday of August which has traditionally been designated as the “Festival of Christ the King.” During Kingdomtide clergy got to wear green stoles symbolizing the growth of the Kingdom of God in the world. After all, our Lord did teach us to pray: “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on ...

1317. The War of Malchus’ Ear

John 18:1-11

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... other also...” (Matthew 5:38-39) What are we going to do with Jesus’ words? There have been many attempts to try to come to come terms with them over the centuries. Some have said that His words were really “counsels of perfection,” and not designed for ordinary mortals like most of us. Perhaps they were O.K. for the specially pious: monks, nuns, etc., but we ordinary folks are not bound by them. However, I cannot recall Jesus saying that His commandments were meant for an elite group of Christians ...

1318. God Doesn’t Take Vacations

John 5:1-15

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... . It was forbidden to light a fire, tie a knot, move a lamp, go on a journey, or prepare a meal on the Sabbath. The Scribes worked out all of these rules, and the Pharisees monitored whether or not people observed them. So, instead of being a day designed to protect the health and welfare of people who work, the Sabbath became a day of regulations and prohibitions, and the list of things which one could or could not do became almost endless. As I write this sermon I find myself in an “orthodox” hotel in ...

1319. On Panicking Close to Shore

John 6:16-24

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... to themselves, “That sounds familiar. Where have we heard that phrase before? Oh, yes, that was the divine Name given to Moses when he met God in the burning bush and asked, “What is your name?” In the Bible, “name” means more than mere designation. Name stands for character. In this simple phrase, “I am,” many scholars see in the Gospels - and especially in the Fourth Gospel - Jesus’ unique claim to divinity. He was the One who could use the Divine Name. In Him we see the divine character ...

1320. The Saint Who Played Second Fiddle

John 1:35-42

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... enough, in the early church Andrew was frequently called by the title “Protokletos,” which literally means “First-called.” Later on we shall see that Philip vies with Andrew for that title, but it is significant that the early Christians gave him that designation. He was at least one of the first to be called by Jesus, because Jesus knew that Andrew had exactly what was needed in the infant Church. Without people like Andrew, there would never have been people like Peter! Most of the real ...

1321. Good Old What’s-His-Name

John 14:15-31

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... distinctively Christian way of speaking of God for so long that perhaps we have come to take it for granted, but it is really a remarkable statement of faith. We talk of God as “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” This is not merely theological mumbo-jumbo designed by theologians to confuse and befuddle the unwary layperson. It refers to the Christian’s concrete experiences of God at work in human history. And it does not need to be as confusing as it sounds. Recall that the symbol for the Holy Spirit is a ...

1322. The Laying on of Hands

Mark 5:21-43

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... Press, 1951, Vol. 7, p. 725) I side with Luccock, not with the laughers. How about you? William Barclay, that great Scots Biblical commentator reminds us that “Jewish mourning customs were very vivid and very detailed, and practically all of them were designed to stress the desolation and the final separation of death.” (Daily Study Bible, Phila: Westminster Press, 1956.P. 133) Most of us fail to realize that life after death was never a real part of Old Testament faith. Even today, strictly Orthodox ...

1323. When Compassion Overcomes Irritation

Mark 6:30-44

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... of life and not know what way to take.” (Daily Study Bible, p. 157) There are people all around us who hurt. Do we know? Do we care? I came across a reference to the fact that there was a Michigan high school in which the students designated October 1, 1986 as “Nerd Day.” One freshman was bright but sensitive; since entering high school, he had been harassed and teased for being a “nerd.” One day before “Nerd’s Day,” this 14-year old boy hanged himself in his own home. He simply couldn’t ...

1324. When Tradition Gets in the Way

Mark 7:1-23

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... this sort of thing over the years. The view of most non-churchgoers is that Methodists are defined by what they don’t do. Bishop Kennedy once described someone who did not drink, did not smoke, did not dance, and asked a layperson if that designated that one a Christian. “Yes,” the man said. “Well,” said Kennedy, “I’ve just described my dog.” Negativity is not the Christian Faith. Christians ought to be people who are distinguished from others by what they do, not by what they don’t do: a ...

1325. On Not Knowing What to Say

Mark 9:2-13

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... plain of Megiddo as the site of the Transfiguration of Jesus. The Eastern Church actually calls the Festival of the Transfiguration the Taborion. It may be that the choice of Mt. Tabor was based on the mention of it in Psalm 89:12. But the designation is probably wrong. Mark says that this happened close upon Peter’s confession at Caesarea Philippi. Tabor is in the south of Galilee, and Caesarea Philippi is away to the north. Tabor is not a “high mountain” but only around 1000 feet high, and in the ...

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